On paper this book and I should have been a perfect fit. A mixture of Alice in Wonderland and zombies? Count me in. Alice was one of my favourite fairy tales growing up. It was one of those books I read until it fell apart. And zombies? Well I will never turn down a zombie novel. Not ever. So it seems to go without saying that I was more than a little eager to get my hands on this book.

But being a good match on paper, doesn't always mean things will work out when confronted with the real thing and that is exactly what happened when I actually sat down to read Alice in Zombieland.

The premise of this book is fine. It's intriguing, it's well thought out, there's some good twists. Clearly a lot of thought went into the plotting of this book and I can respect that. But that sadly just wasn't enough to win me over. All the excellent plotting and twists went right out the window when faced with the characters and the writing itself.

Almost every character in this book was...well...kind of annoying. They were whiny, they made ridiculous decisions, I couldn't find a single one to relate to. Absolutely no connection to them what so ever. It's hard to really get into a book, when you feel so detached. Alice - or Ali - especially got on my nerves. If I met someone like her in real life, I would probably walk quickly in the other direction. So it really didn't help that this book was narrated by her.

Passage after passage made me actually groan out loud. I've included a few here so you can see for yourself (*note: quotes are taken from the advance reader's copy of the book and may be changed in the finished version)

"What I saw shocked my soul. I wasn't the only one who'd gotten a death glare today. Cole was watching Justin as if he meant to flay the skine from his bones, throw it down and play "Dance Dance Revolution" on it." (p. 73)

"Some were more interested in talking, but a few were more itnerested in making out against the wall. I couldn't locate Justin in the crowd but can I just say that there was more T and A in here than in a bucket of the Kentucky Colonel's best" (p. 214) <---this one I don't even get. I sincerely hope there isn't any "A" in your bucket of chicken. Unless they've changed the chicken since I became a vegetarian....

Do people really talk like this? Am I just extremely lucky that I've never come across them?

I made it through the whole book but it was a struggle and I sincerely doubt that I will be continuing with this series. Let's hope for better things from the next mash-up I read.

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